My 1-feet newbie tank

[gid]

This is my 3-month old tank.
- 1 feet
- 2x8w t5
- Gex slim hof
- Advanced Soil (Plants)
- Florish Excel, Dymax Flora, Dymax Iron
- 9 Sakura Shrimps, 5 Golden tetras, 3 Otos (mostly hiding)

I have been staring and meddling with this tank for 3 whole months that my eyes have become 'numb' to it. So just thought of posting it here for some objective comments.

I have some thoughts:
* is my tank too crowded and messy, and lacks character? I'm afraid i have a newbie syndrome where I am just unknowingly cramming too much in here
* the tenelus at the foreground looks too "big" for a 1 feet tank. Im thinking of replacing it with glosso or dwarf carpet hairgrass, but dont know if it will survive in a lo-tech.

Tell me what you think about my tank and help me learn! (think im being poisoned, im planning my 2nd tank soon...)

[darrentyl]

I like your layout and i believe your shrimps like it too. Alot of hiding place for them. Mine is in a mess and overcrowded with plants too and i also have difficulties looking out for them.

[bluebubbles]

They look nice, you might want to consider staraugyne for your foreground as Tenulus can be intrusive in a small tank like yours.

[armourshrimp36]

Are you sure you are a newbie?

[gid]

yea absolutely noob. i was asking alot of silly qns here when i 1st started, but thanks for all the patient guidance from the bros. i will prolly start a 2nd tank soon.

[gid]

Hey bros, just did a rescape, cos its was getting too cluttered. tell me your thoughts!

I...

-got ride of the e tennelus on the foreground and planted glosso (love them!!!), they are starting to carpet.
-added some rocks amongst the glosso and created some gradient on my substrate
-shifted my java moss to the back and made it a foreground plant
-untied the nana from dw and just stuck it in between the 2 tall rocks
-created a 'mountain' cluster by putting all the dw and rocks together
-and massively pruned alot of the stem plants




-

[ismification]

I like how bushy your moss looks in the back. Good luck with getting the glosso to carpet!

[cherabin]

Seeing success with glosso in low-tech setup makes me temped to try thanks for the poison!

[Numbskull]

your moss might be covered in long run. But very nice tank!! Why not removing the 2 standing up rocks?

[tetrakid]

All are very nice setups, gid, every single one shown here. I see nothing lacking in these superbly done scapes for a 1-footer.
Some people just have the natural flair.

If I am one of my little Tetra friends, I will certainly be dripping saliva and jealously yearning to live in any of those luxurious abodes.
Lucky shrimps those.

[darter]

Whats your dosing regime? Im thinking of having a carpet plant for my 1 footer too. But im using Benibachi soil, dont it comes with base ferts.

[gid]

Hey TetraKid, your words are too kind. somehow i still feel my tank looks look noobish, like a noob who is trying too hard n squeezing too much inside.

Darter, im dosing dymax flora, dymax iron and excel weekly (all on 2/3 dose only, don't wanna affect my shrimps). 2x8w t5. Advanced HELP substrate. 15% wc weekly.

[sateman]

I believe those are flame moss at the background. The rocks are nicely placed but try and get all to be same colour / type. Hope the glosso does well in your tank. Well done!

[gid]

oh they are flame moss and not java? whats the diff?

how long can i let these grow before trimming? read that they cant grow too thick of light cant reach the botton and it will rot

[sateman]

Flame moss twirls upwards like candle flame whereas java is a bit of a messy grower. See links.

http://www.aquamoss.net/Java-Moss/Java-Moss.htm
http://www.aquamoss.net/Flame-Moss/Flame-Moss.htm

In your case, an inch longer will be quite nice.

[gid]

hey sateman, tks! what i have is indeed flame moss... silly LFS told me its java.

no wonder, i was wondering why is it that mine was growing upwards while other ppl's are growing horizontally.

anyway im v happy with how flame is much denser than java, and now that its growing so high, it has become my background!

[Trichopsis]

Really nice!

[sunnymonk]

Wow this is really nice

[fookie]

Hey TetraKid, your words are too kind. somehow i still feel my tank looks look noobish, like a noob who is trying too hard n squeezing too much inside.

Darter, im dosing dymax flora, dymax iron and excel weekly (all on 2/3 dose only, don't wanna affect my shrimps). 2x8w t5. Advanced HELP substrate. 15% wc weekly.

Hi Gid,

May I know where did you purchase 2x 8W T5 lighting? I am having a 1ft tank as well, have been thinking about changing light but it's difficult to get for this size.

Thank you

[thomashl_99]

nice setup